One of the unfamiliar words was "shully" (p. 43) but Josserek explains it. He is an honest migratory worker on the Mother Ocean. Shullies have a king, ceremonies, yearly meetings and a code and pride themselves in being skillful workers but have no initiations or formal membership.
His home country, Killimaraich, has a limited monarchy presiding over the Seniory, comprising squires and capitalists, and the Advisory, elected by the tribes.
Poul Anderson never fails to describe plausible societies in exotic settings. (And never forget that our own setting is exotic if we look at it right.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I've forgotten about the shullies of THE WINTER OF THE WORLD. They seem to be a bit like our gypsies or the tinerans of Aeneas we see in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN. I'm a bit doubtful shullies, as an institution can work, however, if they don't have some kind of formal membership.
Yes, even OUR times and institutions, however dulled by familiarity, can look exotic if we have the imagination to think of them like that.
Sean
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